This volume gives an overview on the currently debated ethical issues regarding advance directives from an international perspective. It focuses on a wider understanding of the known and widely accepted concept of patient self-determination for future situations. Although advance directives have been widely discussed since the 1980s, the ethical bases of advance directives still remain a matter of heated debates. The book aims to contribute to these controversial debates by integrating fundamental ethical issues on advance directives with practical matters of their implementation. Cultural, national and professional differences in how advance directives are understood by health care professions and by patients, as well as in laws and regulations, are pinpointed.

Contents:
Part I History of Advance Directives and Prerequisites for Validity
1. Historical Review of Advance Directives
2. Personal Capacity to Anticipate Future Illness and Treatment Preferences
3. Advance Directives in Psychiatry

Part II Defining the Scope of Advance Directives
4. On the Scope and Limits of Advance Directives and Prospective Autonomy
5. Revocation of Advance Directives
6. Limitations to the Scope and Binding Force of Advance Directives: The Conflict Between Compulsory Treatment and the Right to Self-Determination
7. Advance Directives in the Context of Imprisonment

Part III Effects on Family, Friends and Professional Relations
8. Advance Directives and the Physician-Patient Relationship: A Surprising Metamorphosis
9. Advance Directives and the Role of Family and Close Persons – Legal Provisions and Challenges
10. Advance Directives and the Ethos of Good Nursing Care

Part IV Ethical Challenges
11. Advance Directives Between Respect for Patient Autonomy and Paternalism
12. The Use of Advance Directives in the Context of Limited Resources for Healthcare
13. From Legal Documents to Patient-Oriented Processes: The Evolution of Advance Care Planning

Part V Conclusions
14. Concluding Remarks

Represents the current state of debate regarding the ethical bases of Advanced Directives (A.D.)
Picks up current core issues from a multidisciplinary perspective
A key book for ethical issues on Advanced Directives with particular attention to questions of implementation
Focuses on a wider understanding of the known and widely accepted concept of patient self-determination for future situations